Brad Binder has been tipped for fight the Ducatis for the MotoGP championship, des✨pite his KTM lagging behind in one particular area.

Binder - fourth in last year’s chaಌmpionship - finished the💛 Qatar MotoGP second, the only non-Ducati rider in the top seven.

His KTM has a ma🐽jor advantage over the Ducati but also suffers with a key weakness.

Asked if KTM could propel ♊Binder into a title challenge, Michael Laverty sဣaid on TNT Sports: “Yes, 100%.

“ꦜFor the KTM to blow pas🌠t the Ducati on the straight here? That’s an advantage.

“It does seem like they’r♋e getting off the corners better than they did last year. They are💛 turning well.

“We cou💙ldn’t see where they were losing time but Brad will know what h📖e’s missing.

“Whether it’s grip or turning? My mon🔴ey is o🧔n acceleration.

“The first bit off the corne♊r, that’s where Ducati do so well. With a really long bike which lowers so well with their lowering dev𓄧ice, and a torque management system which is docile down low. It doesn’t make sense but it punches with the usable aero from the Ducati.

“KTM have ma🌃de inroads on that, over t🍸he winter, but there’s a little way to go yet.”

Binder finished second in both the sജprint and the grand prix at the first round of 2024.

He edged Prꦐamac’s Jorge 😼Martin in their battle to finish behind Francesco Bagnaia in the main race.

“T🃏wo secoꦅnd places to start the season is fantastic,” Binder reacted.

“I’m much happier with the second place of 🌠today compared to the second place of yesterday.

“Yesterday I felt we were missing something but today it was much better. I knew today was going to be a super difficult race because we are super ha🀅rd on the rear tyr𒉰e sometimes.

“I needed to get it to the end so I was as clean as I could be. It was hard to stay composed because I could🐈 see Pecco was just there.

“It൩ was like a carrot dangling and you just want to go for it. But I knew that if I attempted to push I might catch up a bit but I would lose a couple of seconds in the las🌊t few laps.

“I had to be really clever. It was awesome battling♎ Jorge and I had a lot of fun. Let’s see if we can improve a bit because it would be awesome to give these boys a fight next time arou💙nd.”